If you managed to get through 2013 without “twerking,” “vaping,” “taking a selfie” or “mining a
bitcoin,” rest easy. I think your life may be the richer for it.

But if you didn’t even hear any of those words, maybe you should get out more. According to the
researchers who keep track of word usage for dictionaries, you would have missed out on the same
sort of timely chatter that made 2012 a big year for “sexting,” “man cave,” “Frankenstorm,” “cloud
computing” and “bucket list.”

Some words in each year are new. Others are old but find new life in new times. Among the
most-used words in 2013, prominent themes include money, narcissism, entitlement, self-delusion and
overflowing waste. As a social critic, I am grateful to find so much sustenance for my inner
grump.

Examples include:

Affluenza: A theoretical term in psychology for what most people call “a spoiled kid.”
Lawyers cited affluenza in 2013 to defend a wealthy 16-year-old Texas kid who killed four people
and paralyzed one while driving drunk. The judge apparently bought it. He sentenced the kid to 10
years’ probation, no prison, just therapy at a lush California rehab clinic, paid for by his
parents. Meanwhile, thousands of nonviolent offenders cool their heels in prison, paid for by the
taxpayer. Judges like this one give
affluenza a bad name.

Bitcoin: A unit of alleged digital “money” that offers everything that paper currency
offers, except stability, reliability or transparency. Now you see it … No, you don’t.

It’s not clear who’s behind bitcoin, but its biggest users appear to be international gangsters
and the Wall Street geniuses who gave us “derivatives” and the 2008 crash. Hey, what possibly could
go wrong?

Fatberg: No, it is not a new nickname dreamed up by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s
rivals. It is British slang for the yucky lumps of congealed cooking fat, wet wipes, baby nappies
and other debris that clog London’s sewers. Fatberg bounced around the globe in August when a
record-sized 15-ton ball of the stuff had to be dislodged with shovels and water jets. As Donald
Trump might say, fatberg is “gonna be hu-u-uge!”

Lean In: It’s not just good advice to nearsighted desktop computer programmers anymore. As
a recent episode of the FX sitcom
The League put it, “lean in” is “the white-collar version of 'Git-R-Done,'" Larry the
Cable Guy’s famous slogan.

Selfie: Oxford Dictionaries’ international Word of the Year, beating out
twerk and
binge-watch. Its usage this year received a boost from Danish Prime Minister Helle
Thorning-Schmidt’s celebrated selfie with President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David
Cameron at the memorial for Nelson Mandela.

The captured moment set tongues to wagging on this side of the Big Pond, mostly along the usual
partisan lines. Free of its context and unfettered by actual reporting, a picture is worth 10,000
speculations.

Twerk: A booty-shaking dance move of uncertain origin that evolved through hip-hop
culture. It erupted into the mainstream when Miley Cyrus alarmed parents by backin-that-thang-up on
Robin Thicke during MTV’s video awards show. Purists sniffed that Cyrus is to the twerk what Pat
Boone was to rhythm-and-blues or, for you youngsters, what Sen. Ted Cruz brought to
Green Eggs and Ham.

Vape: A chic new verb for the act of sucking on electronic cigarettes, which deliver
vaporized nicotine instead of tobacco smoke. Intended to wean smokers off of their expensive
cigarette habits, it offers an expensive nicotine habit.

Young Invincibles: Young adults ages 18 to 34 upon whom the Affordable Care Act relies to
help pick up the cost of the health-insurance program. Trouble is, young people are the least
likely to comprehend why they will ever, ever need it, even as they face looming threats of
fatbergs, affluenza, a bitcoin crash and — watch for it — scientific studies on the dangers of
secondary vaping.